# Usage

<iframe 
  src="https://www.loom.com/embed/30dc0b5e791d411d8dc2b17cd29b7908?sid=2ba43881-b67b-4a4e-b414-6c6cbfd4ca0c" 
  frameborder="0" 
  allowfullscreen 
  style={{ width:'100%', height:'500px' }} 
/>

- Launch Lightrail initially as you would normally start an application on your platform (i.e. from your application launcher). Consider adding it to your startup items ([OS X](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/open-items-automatically-when-you-log-in-mh15189/mac), [Gnome](https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/shell-apps-auto-start.html.en)), so that it automatically starts on boot.
- When Lightrail is running on your system, it can be activated at any time by pressing the keyboard combination `Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-Space`.
- Use the up- and down-arrow keys to browse actions, and hit `enter/return` to select one (while in 'Choose an action' mode).
- To change the action afterwards, press `esc` or `@`, or click on the current action
- After selecting an action, enter the prompt (or any other required arguments). Your prompt can include tokens, which pull in additional context from external sources:
  - Type the forward-slash at any point in a prompt (`/`) to open the Tokens menu. Use the arrow keys to select a token and hit enter to insert that token into your prompt.
  - In general, try to be explicit about what sources of content you'd like to include for best results.
- `Cmd/Ctrl-Up` and `Cmd/Ctrl-Down` cycle through the prompt history.

import { Callout } from "nextra/components";

<Callout>
  By default, Lightrail uses a lightrail.ai-provided gateway to access OpenAI's
  LLMs. If you'd like to switch to using your own API key and accessing the
  OpenAI API directly, you can configure that in Settings ([see here for more
  info](/configuration))
</Callout>
